'Lewis Cook was needed by the team,' says Eddie

I was as shocked as any fan to see Lewis Cook among the starters for the match with Everton. Unbeknown to us he had two games in the weeks running up to his first league match and was able to play a good hour against Everton. Eddie Howe said his team really needed him to play and his impact could be seen right from the start.

Lewis Cook dominated the game for the first 25 minutes against Everton. 

Lewis didn't hide but tried to dominate the game. It was the kind of performance that the team had been lacking. Everything went through him for the first 25 minutes and he looked by far the best Bournemouth player on the pitch. It was really a personal battle between him and Gylfi Sigurddson as to who would come out on top.

It wasn't just the industry of Lewis Cook that was good it was his quickness of thought and his ability to make the passes, when others found it had to play a team-mates feet. The crowd clearly enjoyed seeing Lewis back in action and the way they responded to his every touch will have given him an even better feeling inside, which certainly helped his game. For me he was man of the match, because he shouldn't have been that good coming back into the team after coming back from a horrendous injury, but he was brave and was pleased to start which was throwing him in at the deep end.

Advertisement

Coastal Garden Buildings

With Jefferson Lerma having had a long flight back to the UK and Surman perhaps too defensive for the role Eddie Howe had in mind for Lewis Cook, the manager took the risk that Lewis could run his heart out for the first hour, as he had done a lot of running in training. It worked and now Eddie has a bit of a headache in working out who to start in the middle against Southampton this Friday.